Reliability and Clubs...

I've been renting from the local flying club.

In the last five flights I've had 4 issues /maintance problems.

1Pilots PTT switch fails on 3 hour cross country, hand mic inop.
Finished flight using copilots mic jack and PTT.

2)Alternator charge indicator fails. maintance ended up replacing the
alternator.

3)Found cracked cowl on 172 , the fiberglass cowl ring just behind
the spinner was cracked 3/4 of the way around and about to come loose.

4)Took off in 172 to finish my IPC tonight and at 700 feet just off
the end of the runway the engine lost power for the longest 5 seconds
of my life. Returned to the field did a hard runup all normal.
After parking the plane I drained several cups of gas from both wing
tanks and the gas sump under the engine.
No dirt, no water the fuel is perfect.
The Fuel seector was on both and in place.
The primer was locked. (first thing I checked)


Am I just having a run of bad luck, or is this normal for older (mid
70's well used airplanes. All of this really makes me want to buy my
own plane,

I fear that I will be jumping out of the frying pan into the fire.

How long does take to get the bugs and issues worked out of an
older plane once purchased...
a)Never,
b)Its always perfect
c)Somewhere in between?

Lastly in a case of an issue like #4 what do you do if the mechanic
doesn't find anything?